Additional help

Street-level photo acquisition

When you start a photo survey project in your community, the first decision you will have to make is what type of camera will be used to acquire street-level photos. The Photo Survey toolbox has been designed to work with standard EXIF data captured by commercially available cameras and there are several on the market today that can be used to collect photos.

When selecting cameras and planning photo collection for your community, consider the following:

Is the camera well suited for diverse weather conditions and can it be mounted on the side of a vehicle or on a window of a vehicle?

Does the camera take photos on pre-defined intervals (for example, a photo taken every two seconds) and acquire GPS coordinate values for each photo taken?

Does the cameras write photo data in a standard EXIF format?

How many photos can be stored on a given camera and how will you get photos off the device?

How many vehicles will you use to acquire photos for your entire community? You will need two cameras for each vehicle used to acquire photos.

The speed you will travel to acquire the photos. The slower you can drive, the more photos you will acquire for each property.

The routes used to acquire photos and if those routes will cover every property in your community.

Can you use vehicles (for example, trash trucks and street cleaners) or employees (for example, code enforcement officers and assessors) already canvassing the community to acquire photos?

Would volunteer organizations working in your community partner with you to acquire photos?